EDITORIAL
House bank scandal
needs full disclosure
When the House rubber-chock scandal first broke
last September, nobody thought much about it. So a
few Representatives didn’t keep careful track of their
checking accounts. Big deal.
However, as the depth of the financial chicanery
came to the surface, it turned into a big deal Constitu
ents wanted to know how their Representatives, who
control billions of taxpayer dollars, could be so blatant
ly fast and loose with their personal finances.
So the House Ethics Committee (to borrow a worn
out cliche, a contradiction in terms if there ever was
one) convened to decide what to do with the most hei
nous abusers of the now-closed House bank.
After months of scrutinizing records and agonizing
over details, the ethics committee finally gave its con
clusion: It would release the names of the Iff current
and five former Representatives who had the worst
bounced che< k records during a td-month period
The collective sigh you just heard coming from
Foggy Bottom was the till other pas! and present mem
bers who won't have their names released
Once again, Congress has revealed what it really
thinks about the American public Voters aren't capa
ble of making rational judgments on the issue, or so the
thinking goes
What an; the Representatives afr<»iii of? Arc thi-s
stared that if their names are on the list, the constitu
ents hack home won't take too kindly to it? That they
niigat even vole the hnan
daily wayward member
out of office?
You fxit their bounced
checks they are.
By releasing only 24
names, the committee
members are covering
their backsides. By sacri
ficing the 19 i omrades left
in the I louse, the commit
tee has taken some heat
off of the other abusers.
Better to lose a few than a
lot.
A Representative
who consistently
abused the
system and
wrote bad
checks on a
regular basis
should and
probably will get
the boot
Adding on ironic twist
to the decision is the! fact that the committee members
don't know the names of the offenders All the records
are coded to prevent the committee from making deci
sions on a personal basis. By limiting the amount of
names released, the committee members are doing
their best not to zap their friends
The gang of 24 ran up some impressively bad fi
nancial nxtords, and there is no doubt they belong in
the public dog house. To get on the list, a member had
to have overdrafts totaling more than their next pay
check 20 percent of the time during the 39-month peri
od.
In addition, the Washington Post has reported that
one bouncy member wrote close to 1 .(KM) bad checks,
and 45 wrote more than 100.
Almost 1,000 checks?!!
No wonder the ethics committee is worried
The decision to release only 24 names was not a
unanimous one. The vote from the hi partisan (seven
Democrats, seven Republicans) committee was 10-4
All the Democrats and three of the Republicans formed
the majority vote.
It shouldn't be curious why the Republicans are
pushing for complete disclosure. After all. Democrats
have a 102-seat majority in the House — they, by sheer
weight of numbers, have more to lose by a full release
of the names.
No matter what their motives, the Republicans are
right. A full disclosure of the names is necessary. A de
mocracy allows the people to decide what is important
and what isn't. By making all the offenders known, the
voters will have a comparison upon which to make a
decision.
A Representative who bounced one check probably
isn't going to get tossed out of office because of it —
voters can forgive small aberrations. But a Representa
tive who consistently abused the system and wrote had
chei ks on a regular basis should and probabi) will got
the boot.
By not releasing all the names, the ethics commit
tee has taken on the responsibility of telling voters
what is and isn't important. It didn't work for Jennifer
Bills and JoSonja Watson, it shouldn't work for Con
gress.
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Lenin and Joe Camel: What a team
I THE FINE
PRINT
BY OON PETERS
Flipping through the paper
Tuesday. I < ante •«' ross
two interesting stories
The firs! whs about how the
the I S surgeon general and
ihe American Medical Assoc ia
lion have slammed K I Rovn
oliis Tobacco Co for using its
Sue Carnal" to promote Camel
cigarettes
The second equally fascinat
ing stun was about how tilt*
Kremlin has been flooded with
letters ever *im e Corin's maga
zine announced lust November
that tile preserved bodv of Vla
dimir llvic.h Lenin was for sale
Offers ranging from SLOW) to
$27 million have found their
wav to the Russian Security
Ministry
In and of themselves the sto
Ties seem to have little to do
with University students Bui
wait, look, a little i loser Both
could bring untold ru lies to
our little ru-< k of the w oods
W r .III know Wild! Mllll Ill II'
minimi shape the University is
In With u large infusion of
cash. It might get upgrade*! to
"mistiri»l*It* And wo .ill know
how slow tho stall* will t»o In
gotlfng US some ol those notes
s.irv funds
Well, well no more It's lime
to lake responsibility for our
selves If the slate won't fork
over tho money, we ll just have
to go get some, si ruples fie
damned
When I first heard about tho
Camel dei islon, I was a little
skeptical To me, the idea of
the surgeon general and the
AMA deciding what is and isn't
good advertising seems fishy
No doubt they think any c iga
rette advertising is bud, hut
''|oo Camel" is even worse lx
cause it is a highly rec ogm/ublo
figure among voting kids
However. I’m not even going
to get into that argument If 1
write one more smoking col
umn, tin- anti-smoking zealots
on campus will probable fire
bomb my true k
So after careful considera
tion 1 am going to hue k the at
tempt to oust Joe Camel from
the advertising scene* Quite
simply, he will make one hell
of a mascot for the University
Sure, the Duck is an interest
ing and unique mascot, even if
it's a lilt w impy Rut Joe Camel
gracing the football team's hol
msls well, theres a handy
( on< opt Of course, all the stu
dents would nerd I shirts with
the new logo < ;h«ngo the mus
tot and watch tha money start
rolling in from the momorabil
lu
Arc vou listening Mvlcs
Bland' Go talk, to the Camel
people Maybe some kind td
deal ran he arranged Maybe
"K J Reynolds Court I’hat
ought to do it
1‘nrt two of mv plan is much
simpler the purchase of Len
in s tomb Quite simply, the
University should get in on the
bidding
Niter all, tile University Is go
ing t. spend S.lO.OfM) to move
some statues Surety the admin
istration could tome up with
some i ash for tins important
purchase, rigid'
Now I know we ( an t afford
to mati h the S-!7 million a Min
nesotii amateur historian has of
fered iiul (lie University does
have an Inside edge This is a
institute of higher learning The
Kremlin would certainly see
the merits of putting the father
of tiie Soviet Union in scholar
ly repose
Would Lenin be happy being
put on display by some circus
huckster, or gracing the en
trance lobbv of a multinational
(capitalist) conglomerate'' I
think not
And once Lenin was at the
University, wow. the possibili
ties are limitless
Think what a draw the tomb
would lie He would be un
matched as a recruiter And the
slogans would be fantastic
How does this grab you
At other universities, you
study Lenin We have him.”
Not had, eh?
We could slick old Lenin III
front of the L\U Or better set,
put him in Suite 1 and charge
admission Poof, no more fi
nnncial worries At b buck a
look. Lenin would make up the
purchase cost in a matter of
days
So see, the University's fi
nancial woes can easily be
solved All it takes is a little ag
gressive marketing Diversity is
constantly stressed here at the
University With Joe Camel as
mascot and Vlad In the EMU,
tiie University would certainly
be alxiut as diverse as it could
get
Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than
vf>u words, legible, signed and the identification of the
writer must be verified when the letter is submitted.
Oregon Doily
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